Motor vehicles have seen a tremendous increase in the use of in-vehicle electronics. Many of these in-vehicle electronics are adapted to provide the vehicle driver and occupants with a vast amount and array of data and information via wireless communication technology, and to allow them to communicate data and information outside of the vehicle also using wireless technology. An example of these electronics devices are on-board navigation systems, remote vehicle diagnostic systems, real-time weather service, voice communication, Internet access, e-mail and paging. However, since the design cycle for the typical motor vehicle is relatively long as compared to the design cycle for new electronic devices, new state-of-the art electronic products are available but may not be readily adaptable to the motor vehicle.
Many motor vehicles are designed with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) communication bus structure that allows electronic devices on the bus to communicate with each other and with device controllers and with other vehicle systems connected to the bus over bus connection nodes. The bus structure, however, typically operates using a proprietary communication protocol. In addition, in view of the many governmental requirements for vehicle certification, safety, fuel economy, emissions, etc., and the possibility of adverse interactions between devices with the vehicle systems, the OEMs ensure that the devices operate properly on the OEM bus before manufacturing the vehicle.
Along these lines, a bus master may be provided for the OEM bus that permits a limited amount of interaction between the various electronic devices and the OEM bus. There are bus masters in most vehicle bus topographies that coordinate and regulate the interactions between the vehicle components on the bus. The bus requirements are normally very stringent to ensure compliance with safety, regulatory and functionality requirements. Failure to meet these bus requirements can cause a vehicle to malfunction. The cost and effort required to implement these bus requirements in a vehicle device connected to the bus is excessively high. In order to meet these requirements, device suppliers have historically implemented expensive hardware and software solutions (e.g. proprietary operating systems). For example, the OEM bus has stringent requirements for connected devices meeting boot time requirements, e.g. less than fifty milliseconds. If there are devices that do not respond on the bus within the allotted time, the bus master will assume that there is a bus problem and will either shut down the bus or request the faulty device to disconnect from the bus. Either situation is unacceptable. However, for some complex devices, such as Telematics control units, it is difficult to attain these boot time requirements given the complexity of the boot up sequences in current operating systems.
Thus there is a need for an apparatus and method for providing a rapid response for vehicle bus activity, even before a device node has booted up. It would also be of benefit to provide a seamless transition of the device node to a fully booted condition. Further, it is desirable to provide this improvement with a minimal change of software and/or hardware.